Hi,
Using Ardour 2.5 VST, I add a group in the Mixer Window and name it, check it active, and it doesn’t appear as a Mixer Strip. Am I Missing something obvious? I can create a Buss and route the tracks I want to group to it and have it show up but no “Groups”. Anyone else notice this?
Also I am running an AMDx2 5400 (2.8Ghz)CPU and on arrangements of less than 20 tracks with minimal plugins I am running a DSP load of 50-60%, this seems excessive? Comments?
Hi GMaq,
“Groups” in ardour do not refer to audio busses, but are for display organisation purposes only. For example, you could create a group “drums” and then assign this group to all your drum tracks. (left button below the channel fader)
If you now deselect all groups but “drums” in the groups section of the mixer window (column “display”) only channel strips belonging to “drums” will be displayed. The “active” checkbox seems to have no effect.
robsch,
Thanks for the reply, I understand now, I appreciate the explanation.
The “active” checkbox seems to have no effect.
Wrong. The “active” checkbox has the effect that the faders as well as such functions like “mute”, “solo” and “record” of that group are linked together.
BTW: Is there a modifier or so to override that link?
I did not notice that! Anyway, why is it called “active” and not something like “linked” ? Maybe that is suggestive in english, but at least in the german translation (aktiv) it makes no sense.
The term “group” implies that things (in this case the mixerstrips) are grouped/linked together. So I’m pretty fine with “active”. And as I’m german, too, even in the german translation. 
IMO “linked” would somehow double the meaning, which could be confusing.
So actually my first explanation was wrong, instead of just organizing mixerstrips groups will display them when “display” is selected and simultaneously control them when “activ” is selected. That might seem obvious, but I had to think about it twice 
And, now that terms are explained, the naming makes sense for me too.